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1. Boston: 4th busiest mass transit in the nation Source; Atlanta: Less than half the traffic on MARTA as Boston's subway
2. Boston: Pop 609,023 at density of 12,561/sq mi; Atlanta: Pop 537,958 at density of 4,018/sq mi; BOSTON has 3 times the population density of Atlanta
3. Boston: Chinatown, Little Italy; Atlanta: nothing?
4. Boston: Colonial Boston still standing and thriving; Atlanta: Burned by Sherman during the civil war

Yes, Atlanta has most of those things except for cultural neighborhoods, but its not much different from Dallas, Houston, or any other of its peers. Boston is in a league much higher than Atlanta.

What is a 'cultural neighborhood'? If you mean historic neighborhoods, it is obvious that Boston is much older than Atlanta (it never ceases to amuse me the number of posters that try to penalize the Sunbelt cities and declare them invalid because of their relative youth), but Atlanta does indeed have neighborhoods that are considered historic, and they are quite lovely.
And sorry to disappoint, but Atlanta does indeed have ethnic neighborhoods. It is true that they have not been established as long as Boston, since immigration came much later to the South (so by all means let's beat that drum to death), but they are there.
So now by all means go back to your derisive snorting and wheezing about the superiority of Boston.

I had a feeling this thread was going to become a competition thread. You are the OP, right?

There would not be a competition between cities if people would know the place of the city they support. People place Atlanta, Houston and Dallas on the level of NYC, Chicago, Boston, Philly, DC, San Fran and LA, which are truly unique. Atlanta is not on that level. Therefore, when people make claims that Atlanta is on the level of Boston then they are going to get called out on it. Someone putting Atlanta higher than Boston is the equivalent of someone putting Birmingham above Atlanta.

What is a 'cultural neighborhood'? If you mean historic neighborhoods, it is obvious that Boston is much older than Atlanta (it never ceases to amuse me the number of posters that try to penalize the Sunbelt cities and declare them invalid because of their relative youth), but Atlanta does indeed have neighborhoods that are considered historic, and they are quite lovely.
And sorry to disappoint, but Atlanta does indeed have ethnic neighborhoods. It is true that they have not been established as long as Boston, since immigration came much later to the South (so by all means let's beat that drum to death), but they are there.
So now by all means go back to your derisive snorting and wheezing about the superiority of Boston.

If Atlanta has ONE unique cultural neighbrhood such as Polish, German, Chinatown, Little Italy, etc then please name them. Atlanta does not have ANY of these neighborhoods that I am aware of.

There would not be a competition between cities if people would know the place of the city they support. People place Atlanta, Houston and Dallas on the level of NYC, Chicago, Boston, Philly, DC, San Fran and LA, which are truly unique. Atlanta is not on that level. Therefore, when people make claims that Atlanta is on the level of Boston then they are going to get called out on it. Someone putting Atlanta higher than Boston is the equivalent of someone putting Birmingham above Atlanta.

Who on earth is putting Atlanta higher than Boston?
SO funny that anytime a resident of one of the Sunbelt cities tries to assert anything positive about their home, they are accused of putting them above more established cities. We are supposed to be silent and accept the idea that everyone wants what Boston offers, and that Atlanta, Houston, Dallas offer nothing to a prospective resident. Get real.
It would appear that the anger that underlies these base remarks is over the fact that millions have moved to the cities you revile from other parts of the country. Upstarts!

There would not be a competition between cities if people would know the place of the city they support. People place Atlanta, Houston and Dallas on the level of NYC, Chicago, Boston, Philly, DC, San Fran and LA, which are truly unique. Atlanta is not on that level. Therefore, when people make claims that Atlanta is on the level of Boston then they are going to get called out on it. Someone putting Atlanta higher than Boston is the equivalent of someone putting Birmingham above Atlanta.

Actually, there would not be a competition between cities if people understood (and actually visited) more cities prior to critiquing them - this goes both ways. People place so much more importance on a city and call it unique because it is old and large. Many of those cities that you called out have much more in common with each other than they are unique (and I've visited them all and lived much of my life in Chicago).

Atlanta falls short in all four of those. Suburbia is suburbia whether its Decatur GA, or Worchester MA. That isn't what this thread is about.

So does NYC, CHICAGO, PHILI, and NEWARK.

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